BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont’s Grace Potter has been rocking the stage in the Green Mountains and touring nationally for decades. She released a new album earlier this year, sang at the Kentucky Derby, performed with Kenny Chesney in Vegas, and with Chris Stapleton at Madison Square Garden. And Friday night, she kicks off her Grand Point North festival on the Burlington waterfront. In a candid interview, reporter Ike Bendavid spoke with Potter about her successes and struggles.
The Mad River Valley has always been home for Grace Potter.
Reporter Ike Bendavid: Being here, does it keep you grounded?
Grace Potter: Being here, absolutely, especially this field.
Potter’s back in her hometown for now, but she spends half the year in California. Starting Friday, she hosts and performs at Grand Point North, the music festival she founded back in 2011.
“We have repurposed all of the old materials from the former Grand Point North, and we are turning it into a kind of architectural destination site for the festival,” Potter said.
When the rock star’s not tearing up the stage with a mic or guitar in hand, she’s holding a paintbrush instead, helping to revamp her old stage set herself.
“I’m not this diva goddess that maybe I have been presented to be as, and that I love rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty, getting the paint under my fingernails,” Potter said. “I think there’s just something about the Vermonter in me that feels like I can’t hire somebody to do this, that’s silly.”
It’s a family affair. Her dad, well-known sign maker Sparky Potter, is eager to help out. “Just watching the whole GPN thing happen, the whole festival and how it begins several months ago, and this little idea bubbles up, and they are always different,” Sparky said. The proud dad says he has always believed in his daughter. “Sometimes you can’t get around what’s inside you, and she’s one of those people who just explodes with joy and creativity.”
In between the painting — and occasionally breaking into song — Potter reflects on Grand Point North, an event that started with music and grew into an entire arts festival. “The festival is the work of my life. It’s about showing Vermonters not only what amazing stuff is already sitting in their backyard, but sharing Vermont in a way that allows people from out of state to see that we have a thriving culture,” she said.
Potter’s festival, which returned last year, was sidelined for years because of the pandemic and funding. She calls it a low point in her life. “Moving back here, it was this goal to move this dream home because I would be boots on the ground and I could do it. Not just showing up and drifting in from tour like — “Oh sorry, I was just on tour with the Stones. Now I’m back in Vermont for a quick sec. Hi’ — but rather to get and sink my teeth into the lineup and all the logistics behind the festival,” Potter said.
Music is still at the festival’s core, and so is raising money. Proceeds now support Vermont artists.
During pauses in painting, she focuses on music in her home-studio. She admits her sound is entering a new phase. “I used to sing about having stuff to sing about, but I actually didn’t have stuff to sing about. But now, I have all this life under my belt, and it feels just so deeply satisfying to feel I can throw this out there and not be shy about it,” she said.
Along with her husband and producer Eric Valentine, she’s also putting together a documentary featuring her music. The couple says they push each other to be more creative, working on the same goals in and out of the studio.
Reporter Ike Bendavid: What’s it like working together?
Eric Valentine: Well, you know, we’ve managed to maintain, I think it’s still a healthy creative working relationship, which can be really hard once you know, you’re married, you have kids, and you’re a family. And because creative relationships probably… The most important thing for me to do in our relationship is to be able to be honest and say when something needs to be better than it is.
Potter has always known what her artistic life would look like, but what many may not know is that the visionary artist is legally blind.
“It’s not degenerative. It’s just never been good. I just can’t see things.
Reporter Ike Bendavid: How does that impact you on stage?
Grace Potter: I think it’s actually really fed my live performance over the years and allowed me to feel the audience almost instantaneously. Like when you walk on stage, you can kind of feel the fire of the night or the mellowness of the night, or the somber spirit of the night, or, I don’t know, there’s like a vigilance that the audience brings into any beautiful musical event, and you have to, you have to understand and honor that if you’re going to really connect with the audience.
We end the day with the rockstar reflecting on making it big out of a small town.
Reporter Ike Bendavid: How does that influence you?
Grace Potter: It feels like I’ve never changed who I was. Even in all of the iterations of my career, my band, all the things I’ve done on TV and stuff like that, I’m just a Vermont girl, and I love working hard and earning the thing that I do, and Grand Point North always felt like the best opportunity for me to place that all on display… Every day that I get to make music for a living, I still cant believe get to do this.
